ProZinc on backorder, Oscar without insulin

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Chloe007

Chloe007

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I'm a bit worried right now. I was running low on insulin on Monday so I called my vet to get a new vial of ProZinc (has never been a problem to get same day) and about an hour later they called me back to tell me that their ProZinc is on backorder until the end of MARCH. They called around to different vets in the area for me, but the problem seemed to be everywhere. I was given the option to put him on Vetsulin, which I'm not comfortable with at all. I also don't want to put him on Lantus since at 6u, it will sting him. My vet was going to make me do a whole song and dance for it anyways, and with no time to order from Canada it would cost a small fortune.

Anyways, upon calling around I found Petco can fulfill the order. They made it rather easy and faxed something over to my vet which they immediately approved, but it takes Petco 2 days after that to process the order, then overnight delivery.
We just ran out of insulin tonight. I'm hoping we will have it by Saturday at the latest, but that still means we're going 2 days without insulin.
Oscar has no history of ketones.
How worried should I be? Unfortunately there's not much else I can do right now.

Should I just be careful of what he eats and test for ketones in the meantime?
 
As long as he continues to act normally and eat well, he'll probably be fine but you might want to get some urine ketone test strips and keep an eye on him just to be safe.

Chewy.com also sells ProZinc….not sure how long it takes them to "process" it, but I've heard from several people on the Facebook group that it ships quickly...usually next day so if you run into this problem again, you might check them out.
 
Sarah&Soph said:
Chewy is crazy fast. When I was ordering from them, they would ship my order within hours of the vet confirming the prescription and it would arrive the next day
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Man I wish I would've known this, I should have came here first. It was between either Petco or Chewy, I just happened to call Petco first and they just made everything so easy, I had my order placed by the end of the call and I didn't think it'd go that smoothly (I originally just called to make sure they had it in stock). Honestly I thought I had more insulin left than I did, those little vials are deceiving and I thought I had a couple more days so I wasn't in as big of a rush.
 
Chloe007 said:
Man I wish I would've known this, I should have came here first. It was between either Petco or Chewy, I just happened to call Petco first and they just made everything so easy, I had my order placed by the end of the call and I didn't think it'd go that smoothly (I originally just called to make sure they had it in stock). Honestly I thought I had more insulin left than I did, those little vials are deceiving and I thought I had a couple more days so I wasn't in as big of a rush.
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Definitely know what you mean! :rolleyes: But at least it’s ordered and will be on the way soon.

If you order from chewy in the future, you can also mail them a paper copy of the prescription (which is what I started doing because my vet would sometimes take WEEKS to approve it) and there is virtually no delay from when you order it.
 
Check the Supply Closet. There is a post on there for free ProZinc but they are in Oregon. However if you can pay for next day shipping and they can send it out tomorrow, you will have it by Friday.
 
Keep BG testing. Keep the SS updated. Even though Oscar does not have any insulin right now. He may surprise you, and have lower BG readings.

Chewy is owned by Petsmart.

Test for ketones. Oscar was on a high dose of Prozinc.
Check with our sister site facebook group. See if there is anyone local on there that could let you pull a few syringes of insulin from their bottle of Prozinc.
Storing insulin in the syringes is not recommended, because it's 1. hard to mix in the syringe and 2. the lubricant can degrade the effectiveness of the insulin. But if you are really in a pinch, that is another option.

Offer to drive and meet someone halfway.
Check with local cat shelters. They may have a partially opened bottle.

Consider switching to Lantus and driving to Canada to pick up some Lantus. Ontario may require a prescription to sell you insulin.
I know you think the Lantus may sting at that high dose, but maybe Oscar would do better on the Lantus.
 
Chloe007 said:
I also don't want to put him on Lantus since at 6u, it will sting him.
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FYI - Levemir is similar in action to Lantus, just slightly later onset and nadir, and best of all, it does not sting. And we find a lot of higher dose cats do really well on it. Speaking of which, when cats get to 6 units of insulin, we suggest they think about getting their cats tested for a couple of secondary endocrine conditions, called acromegaly and IAA (insulin auto antibodies). One in four diabetic cats has acromegaly. Usually when a cat gets to 6 units, there is something else causing the insulin resistance.
 
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